Reviews with content warning for Child death - Redemptor

Wow! This book is a fantastic sequel to the Raybearer, which I also loved.
I was a bit skeptical when I realized that the big showdown only happened in the last ~50 pages because it felt like not enough time, but it was. No big rush, no cut corners.

At the end of book one, Tarisai was recognized as raybearer and empress. She made a deal with the abiku (kinda the demons of the underworld) that she has to anoint all 12 rulers of the different kingdoms and then go to the underworld as the final redemptor, to save all future redemptor children from being sacrificed.

And that is, what she does. Working as an empress, trying to anoint the kings, and changing the world to be better for everyone. And all the time, she slowly turns mad, because the abiku use the souls of the previously sacrificed redemptor children (ojiji) to not only protect her against assassins but also to isolate her and guilt her.

Me, as a German, who has pretty much no contact with African culture and who just started to read diversely, I admit, that I frequently had problems with names and remembering, what or who they referred to since they were very unfamiliar to me. I probably should have made a list of people, places, spirits, and events, so that I could properly identify them throughout the story.

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aseel_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

pretty disappointed in this one tbh. i liked the conclusion but the plot was so slow and we kept returning to the same issues for ages until we find made some plot progression but it was so slow. i think this one lacked the depth of plot that the first one had.

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emily_mh's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book took everything I loved about Raybearer and made it better. It was once again SO original and so refreshing. I cold never tell where it was going next, but not in a directionless plot kind of way - in a subverting the YA fantasy genre kind of way. I loved Tarisai even more in this instalment: how deeply she loved others, and the way she struggled to make sense of the world yet still tried her utmost to do right by it. This book also improved on something I didn’t like in Raybearer: the time jumps. In this there were far less, so the narrative flowed cohesively.

Redemptor as a book says so much, and I loved each and every theme it delved into. The narrative explores the evils of capitalism. It shows how justice is a marathon and not a sprint; that there must be self-care so that you can continue to contribute. It even illustrates that guilt is not an adequate motive for fighting for justice. This quote on this subject was my favourite from the book:

“Don’t confuse guilt with conviction. Guilt is self-centred, and leads only to destructive obsession. But conviction brings balance - a sense of purpose beyond oneself.”

Redemptor also examines the paradox of sacrificing your values to create a society BASED on your values. It questions what power should look like, and what must be done to achieve that. Overall, I loved that the book challenged the systems that are part-and-parcel of “traditional” (usually white and Western) YA fantasy world-building, namely monarchy and capitalism.

I was initially going to give this book 4.5 stars, not 5. This was because I thought the love triangle was unnecessary and also that I wish Dayo had had more of an active role. But after reading that ending… I knew that nothing less than 5 stars would suffice. It was so satisfying and so well suited. It made me sob MULTIPLE times. It was perfect. Needless to say I can’t wait to see what Ifueko puts out next.

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ashlikes's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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mxkanteven's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Your honour, your honour she’s slaying.

The perfect sequel to Raybearer and makes use of magic to tackle the realities of feudalism and power imbalance perfectly.

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briely's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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kassidyreads's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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